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Open Tender Submission in the estimate workspace. Its sections are Ready to submit, Departures and clarifications, Markup (or Margin on a margin-basis estimate), Estimate schedule, Tender review (when it is turned on for your company), and Tender download. A strip across the top of every section shows the figures the tender goes out at: Cost, Markup (the markup as a percentage of cost), Tender price (excl. GST), Incl. GST, and Still open. Still open is the same count that Ready to submit and the Submit tender dialog give. When something is open, select the count to go to Ready to submit. While the estimate items are still loading, the strip says so rather than showing $0. When your company has tender approval turned on, an approval bar sits under the strip on every section. Once a tender is submitted, a banner names the revision and the date it was submitted, and says the tender is read-only. It also says what to do next: use Revise tender to work on a new revision, or use Reopen for a lost one. A lost tender’s banner also shows the reason it was lost.

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Ready to submit

Ready to submit opens first. It lists what is still open before the tender goes out:
  • Every estimate item has a price
  • No rate exceptions to review
  • Every price choice is made
  • No estimate item has a $0 resource line
  • Indirect costs can be spread onto the items: the estimate’s Shared Costs can be spread. See Shared costs.
  • The project scope is written: while this is still to do, the line has an Add scope button, so you can write the scope without leaving the checklist. See Project scope.
  • The client contact is chosen
  • The documents received are chosen: you have chosen and ticked the documents on Tender download.
  • The Tender review is run and up to date: shown when Tender review is turned on for your company.
Each line shows Done, To do, or Not checked. A line that is still to do says why and links to where you can fix it. Not checked means Stralos is still checking, or could not check it just now. If a check could not be made, select Check again. The summary at the top counts what is still open: one for each item on the item lines, one for each other open line, and one for each Tender review finding not yet dealt with. A line that could not be checked is not counted. When Tender review is turned on, Tender review findings lists each high and medium finding from the latest review. Each row has the same status dropdown as its card in the review, and a View in Tender review link. Select the link to open that review with the finding’s card brought into view and highlighted; Back returns you to Ready to submit. If a filter you set in the review would hide the card, Stralos clears it. Setting a status in either place updates both. A finding counts as dealt with once it is Fixed, Accepted as is, or Not relevant. Low findings are not listed. See Track findings with a status. The list never stops you submitting. The Submit tender dialog repeats each open line as a warning before you confirm. Submitting is still refused for the reasons in Estimate schedule, such as a line that needs a price choice or Shared Costs that cannot be spread. On a submitted tender, the list is for reference only and the statuses can’t be changed here. Change them in Tender review.

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Departures and clarifications

Review departures, clarifications, and included or excluded clauses, organised under free-text groups. Items with no group appear under General. See Departures and clarifications for adding, editing, and linking D&Cs to work items.

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Markup and margin

The section is named Markup, or Margin on a margin-basis estimate. Changes are only available while the estimate is in Draft or Review. Once a tender is submitted, pricing is frozen and these fields are read-only until you use Revise tender to reopen the estimate. The estimate keeps the pricing basis it received when it was created. A 20% markup adds 20% to cost; a 20% margin makes profit 20% of the sell price. On $100,000 cost, these produce $120,000 and $125,000 respectively. To change the tender default:
  1. Select Markup (or Margin).
  2. Enter This tender’s margin % or This tender’s markup %.
  3. Check the worked example and equivalent percentage on the other basis.
  4. Select Save tender margin.
Margin accepts 0–95%. Tender markup saves values from −100% to 999.999%. Use at most three decimal places for either basis. Invalid or unchanged values cannot be saved. Saving updates the tender and recomputes totals. If you enter a negative value, Stralos shows a warning below the field explaining that items using it will be priced below cost. The warning is informational only: the value is accepted and saved. The panel’s description shows your company’s current default for reference. Existing margin estimates price from their frozen company values; that message does not refresh the saved defaults.

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Resource groups and item categories

The Resource groups and item categories ladder is available on both margin-basis and markup-basis estimates. A negative percentage set at any rung shows a warning beside that rung explaining that items priced there will be sold below cost. Nothing is refused: the value is accepted and saved. The first available percentage in this order applies to each component:
  1. Component override.
  2. Item category.
  3. Resource group.
  4. Tender default.
  5. Frozen company default.
At a group or category, a tender-specific value replaces the frozen company value at that same rung. Leave a tender override blank to inherit. An explicit 0% overrides less specific percentages and sells that component at cost. Edit a resource-group or item-category row. Changes save when you leave the field or press Enter. Use Reset or Reset to X% to remove the tender override and restore the frozen value or inherited percentage. Saving or resetting recomputes the estimate. Below the ladder, a Which markup/margin priced each line table lists every rate line that was priced down the ladder, showing the estimate item, line name, the rung that answered (for example Resource group · Labour (this tender) or Company default), and the percentage that was applied. This table reflects the server’s recorded answer at the time the estimate was last calculated, not necessarily what the rungs above currently show. Use it to confirm that each line is being priced by the rung you intended.

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Estimate schedule

Estimate schedule shows the priced schedule, including sections, item numbers, names, quantities, units, Cost rate, Sell rate, Sell price, percentages, and totals. Section and tender subtotals count top-level items so sub-items are not counted twice. The PDF, Excel, and Word downloads are on the Tender download tab. A note at the top of Estimate schedule links to it. Stralos will not let you submit a tender while any live line still needs a price choice. The submit action shows an error naming each affected line. Resolve each one by opening the line’s pricing panel and selecting an option, typing a unit cost, or re-linking the rate item. See Lines requiring a price choice for details. If a drive file the estimate uses has changed or been deleted in the drive since you used it, the submit confirmation lists those sources and the button reads Submit anyway. Select Review sources to sync, keep, or dismiss each one first. This check is advisory: you can submit without resolving it. Switch on Submission view to hide internal cost and percentage columns and use the client-facing headings Description, Rate, and Amount in place of Name, Sell rate, and Sell price. This changes the view only. It does not submit or send the tender. Switching to submission view closes all open Views. Select View on an item to open its cost breakdown inline. You can open several Views to compare items. The table lists allocated shared costs, sub-items, then the item’s own build-up rates. Together these reconcile to its cost and sell totals. Shared-cost percentages are read-only here; edit them in the top Shared costs row. When the pool has several items, its View shows a labelled table for each. To set a rate’s markup or margin override, enter a percentage and press Enter or move to another field. Stralos saves the override, reprices the estimate, and refreshes the schedule. Clear the field to inherit from the ladder. Escape discards an unsaved edit. Lines picked from a day-rate schedule are locked and labelled as taking no markup. Day rates already include overheads and margin, so the ladder skips them and they take no Shared Costs share. See Adding day rates to a build-up. If saving fails, Not saved. explains the error and retains your input. Submitted estimates show read-only inputs; select Revise tender before changing them. Use Markup (or Margin) for group, category, or tender defaults. Use the server-calculated monetary totals for the final tender review. The displayed percentage for an item is derived from its rate components and may differ from a percentage calculated directly from the item’s final cost and price.

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Sell rate rounding

You can round sell rates up to a tidy step, for example to the nearest dollar or to the next rate ending in .99. Round sell rates up to in the Estimate schedule toolbar sets the rounding for the whole estimate. It starts at No rounding. The steps are:
  • Up to next ending in .09, Up to nearest $0.10, Up to nearest $0.50, and Up to next ending in .99.
  • Up to nearest $1, $5, $10, $20, $50, $100, $1,000, $2,000, $5,000, and $10,000.
  • Up to next ending in 9.99, 99, and 999.
Rounding always goes up. A rate already on a step stays as it is. For example, with Up to nearest $1, a rate of $114.34 becomes $115.00 and the sell price becomes quantity × $115.00. Changing the setting reprices every item that uses it. Each item also has its own Round sell rate up to column. It starts at Use estimate setting, which names the current estimate step. Choose another step to override the estimate for that item, or choose No rounding to keep that item unrounded whatever the estimate setting is. The column is hidden in submission view. Some items are never rounded and show no rounding control:
  • Provisional sums, because their price is their allowance.
  • Items with a quantity of zero.
  • Items in a Shared Costs section. The items that receive the shared costs round their own rates.
The schedule shows the rounded rate, which is the rate Stralos stores. Point at a rounded rate to see the rate before rounding, for example Before rounding $114.34. A note above the schedule says when some sell rates were rounded up. The extra sell from rounding counts as margin, so the item’s percentage, the section subtotals, and the tender total all include it. The build-up underneath does not change. On a submitted estimate the rounding is read-only. The toolbar shows the setting as text, for example Round sell rates up to: Up to nearest $1, and each item shows its own choice.

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Shared costs

When an estimate has a Shared Costs section whose costs are distributed across items, a Shared costs row appears at the top of the schedule. Its amount shows as muted text indicating the pool is spread across items below, and it is not added to the tender total. Select View on the Shared costs row to see the shared cost rates and set their margin or markup. This is the only place to set the percentage for shared costs. Each item’s View shows its share read-only, with a tooltip that points back to the top row. The Shared costs row and all open Views are hidden in submission view. If a Shared Costs section cannot be spread, because all items in the estimate are fixed price or provisional sums, Stralos shows a warning on that section. In this state:
  • The normal view shows a warning explaining that shared costs cannot be applied.
  • The download buttons on Tender download are disabled.
  • Submission view shows an error in place of the shared cost lines and the tender total reads Blocked.
  • Submitting the tender is refused with the title Shared costs can’t be applied.
To resolve it, add an item with an open cost, or remove the shared costs section, then download or submit.

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Displayed rates and line amounts

Stralos stores each item’s sell rate to the cent, and the sell price is always quantity × that rate. A client who multiplies the quantity by the rate on the schedule gets the amount shown. Section subtotals and the tender total are also the figures Stralos stores, not sums worked out in your browser. Some rows have no stored sell rate: provisional sums, items with a quantity of zero, and a few older rows on frozen estimates. For those rows, and for every cost rate, Stralos derives the rate from the stored amount and the quantity. It uses the fewest decimal places (between 2 and 6) at which the rate multiplied by the quantity reproduces the stored amount. The schedule shows rates to two decimal places. When a rate has more, or cannot reproduce the amount exactly, a note above the schedule says so: point at or tab to the rate to see it in full. The amounts are exact. In submission view the note uses the client-facing words Rate and Amount. The stored amount is always the figure used for totals and the submitted schedule. For a configurable column-by-column export of estimate items, use Preview Export from Estimate Builder → Work Items.

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Tender review

When Tender review is turned on for your company, the Tender review section reviews the estimate against the project documents you choose and lists findings to look at before you submit. See Tender review.

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Tender approval

When an admin turns on Tenders need approval in company settings, you can send a tender to someone else in your business to check before it goes out. Approval is a record only: the tender stays a draft, and approval never stops you submitting. If the setting is turned off later, a tender that already has approval requests still shows them, so a request can still be answered. Only Send for approval goes away.

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Send for approval

  1. Select Send for approval in the approval bar. It is available while the tender is in progress.
  2. Choose the person to approve it. The list shows the people on this project. Turn on Show everyone in the business to choose someone else, or use Find a person. You can’t choose yourself, and contractors are not listed.
  3. Add a note if you like, then select Send for approval.
If the person is not on the project yet, they are marked Not on this project, and sending adds them to it as a member. Stralos lets them know by email and in Stralos, with a link to the tender. Sending a new request replaces one that is still waiting.

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Approve or send back

The approver sees who asked, the tender price when it was sent, and when, with Approve and Send back:
  • Approve records the approval, with an optional note. It does not submit the tender.
  • Send back returns the tender with a note saying what needs changing. The note is required.
Stralos lets the person who asked know.

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Approval states

The bar shows the current request: An approval stands when the figures change afterwards. The bar then shows Figures changed since approval. While a request is waiting, the bar says when the figures have changed since it was sent, with the price now. The person who asked, or an admin, can select Withdraw request while it is waiting. Stralos lets the approver know. Select Approval history to see every request on the tender. A request belongs to a revision. After Revise tender, the new revision starts with no approval. The Submit tender dialog and Ready to submit each show a line about the approval for information. Neither ever blocks or warns.

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Tender download

Tender download is where you put the tender together for the client. Choose which sections to include, tick the documents the tender was priced on, then download a branded PDF, Excel, or Word file. You can also write the rates and amounts back into the client’s original workbook, and share a private link. Your choices on this tab are saved on the estimate as you make them. There is no save button. If a choice can’t be saved, a message says so; your choices still apply to this download. Once the tender is submitted, its choices are locked. They are the ones it was submitted with. Downloading never changes the estimate, so you can download a submitted tender at any time.

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As submitted

On a submitted tender, the tab names the revision, just under Client contact, and the date it was submitted. When you submit, Stralos keeps the PDF, Excel, and Word files as they were sent. The downloads on a submitted tender are those exact files. If no copy was kept, for example for a tender submitted before Stralos kept copies, the tab says so, and the files are made from the submitted figures, with the original submission date. A note says This copy was made today from the submitted figures.

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Client contact

The top of the tab shows the project’s Client contact: their name, phone, and email. This is who the PDF names under Client contact. If the project has no client contact, or the chosen contact has since been removed from the client, the tab says so and shows a picker. Choose one of the client’s contacts, or select New contact to add one with a name and a phone number or email. Your choice is saved to the project straight away. On a submitted estimate, or a project with no client, choose the contact in Project settings instead. A missing contact never blocks the download. The tender leaves the contact out until one is chosen.

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Project scope

The project scope appears as a read-only preview. It belongs to the project, so every estimate on the project shares it. If the project has no scope yet, the tab says so. To change the scope, select Edit in project settings. See Project scope. On a submitted tender the link is not shown: the tender keeps the scope it was sent with, and changing the project scope does not change it.

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Include

Tick the sections to include. All six start ticked. They print in the order your company’s tender layout sets; the standard layout uses this order:
  1. Project scope: the project’s scope, printed first.
  2. Summary: the tender totals by section.
  3. Schedule of quantities: the priced schedule.
  4. Documents received: the names and dates of the documents the tender was priced on. The files are not attached.
  5. Departures and clarifications: the estimate’s linked D&Cs.
  6. Terms and conditions: your company’s terms, typed or as a PDF.
A section the tender layout hides is left out even when it is ticked. Schedule of quantities is the layout’s Schedule of prices block. Some ticks are disabled when there is nothing to print:
  • Project scope is disabled when the project has no scope.
  • Documents received is disabled when the project has no documents, and the section is left out.
  • Terms and conditions is disabled when your company has not added its terms. Admins see a link to company settings. Other users are asked to contact their admin.
The hint under Terms and conditions says how the terms will appear. Typed terms print as their own section. A terms PDF is attached at the end of the PDF download, and the Excel and Word files say it is attached separately. See Terms and conditions for how admins set them up. You must tick at least one section to download. While your download choices, the project scope, your company’s terms, or the project’s documents are still loading, or could not be loaded, the download buttons wait and a message says why. Select Try again or refresh the page, or untick that section.

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Documents received

When Documents received is ticked, a table lists the project’s current documents with their folder and the date each was received. Superseded, rejected, and infected files are not listed. Until you change the ticks, Stralos ticks the documents in the project’s tender documents folder, or every document when there is no such folder. It never ticks your company’s own pricing, quote, or submission files for you. These show a Your pricing badge. Tick or untick documents to match what the tender was priced on. The count above the table shows how many documents are ticked. While Documents received is ticked, at least one document must be ticked. The documents are listed by folder, then by name. To narrow the list, choose a folder from the folder list (a Folder dropdown on narrow screens), type in the search box, or turn on Ticked only. These only change what is shown: ticks on documents you can’t see are kept. Select all in this folder and Clear this folder tick or untick the documents shown. While a search or Ticked only is on, they read Select all shown and Clear shown.

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Schedule options

  • Show sub-items appears when the estimate has sub-items. It is on by default. Each sub-item is listed beneath its parent: in Excel it is grouped one outline level down so you can collapse it. Turn it off to leave sub-items out. A parent’s amount already includes its sub-items, so totals are the same either way.
  • Include cost breakdown is off by default. Turn it on to add a Cost breakdown sheet to the Excel file, and lines under each item in the PDF, showing the client how each item’s price is built up. The breakdown is in sell figures that add up to the item’s amount. Internal cost and margin are never shown. It is unavailable while Leave prices out is on.
  • Leave prices out draws a copy with items, quantities, and units only: no rates, totals, or summary money. On a submitted tender it is a one-off choice for the next download, and the submitted copy keeps its prices.

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Downloads

Download PDF produces a branded PDF with the ticked sections. A terms PDF, if ticked, is added after the last page. The PDF title block says who the tender is from and who it is for:
  • Client: the client’s name and address. The client’s logo appears on the right when the client record has one.
  • Client contact: the project’s main contact, with their phone and email. Set the contact in Client contact on this tab or in Project settings. A contact deleted since it was chosen is left out.
  • Prepared by: your company’s name, the project office’s address, and the phone, email, and GST number. These three come from the project’s office location when they are set there, otherwise from Company contact details in Settings → Company defaults.
Any detail that is not set is left out. Download Excel produces a branded workbook with a sheet for each ticked section. The Schedule sheet lists each item’s number, description, unit, quantity, rate, and total, grouped by section with section totals, then the total excluding GST, GST, and the total including GST. If the estimate has a contingency, an items total and a contingency line come first. Amounts are live formulas wherever quantity × rate reproduces the stored amount. The Summary sheet shows each section’s value and its share of the tender. These totals match the estimate’s Overview. The workbook shows the same title block details in a row under its top band. Download Word produces an editable Word (.docx) file with the same sections, in the same order and with the same figures, as the PDF. Section headings appear in Word’s navigation pane, the schedule is a table whose header row repeats on every page, and the page numbers are Word fields. The Inter font is embedded, and Sora too when the layout uses it for headings, so the file looks the same on a computer without them. Google Docs uses its own fonts. All three files use the units as the schedule shows them, for example m³, and leave out internal costs and percentages. They use your company’s brand colour and logo. If neither is set, they use the Stralos navy with no logo. Your admin sets branding in Settings → Company defaults → Company branding. The PDF and Word files follow your company’s tender layout: the page setup, fonts, logos, blocks, and footer. The Excel file follows its block order, colours, and logo. Files are named after the project and the revision, for example <Project name> - Tender - Rev 2.pdf. A copy with prices left out ends in - No prices. A submitted tender’s files carry its revision; a draft’s carry the revision it will become. When a Shared Costs pool has been spread, the pool is not listed separately. Each item’s amount already includes its share, so the total is correct without a pool line. Export original workbook writes the current rates and amounts into the client’s own workbook. It is available once an Excel schedule has been imported into the estimate. When several source workbooks are attached, choose one in Source workbook. Each schedule item must match one row in the workbook by item number or description; an unmatched or duplicated item stops the export. Items in the Shared Costs section cannot be written back; move an item out of Shared Costs if you need it as its own line. The section ticks and schedule options do not apply to this export. If a draft’s Shared Costs pool cannot be spread, every download button is disabled and the tab says the indirect costs can’t be spread onto any item, and asks you to fix them on Estimate schedule first. See Shared costs. A download is refused with a message when:
  • The PDF would have more than 4,000 rows or be larger than 4 MB, not counting an attached terms PDF. Turn off Include cost breakdown, or download the Excel file instead.
  • The Word file would have more than 4,000 rows or be larger than 4 MB. Turn off Include cost breakdown, or untick some sections.
  • The Excel file would have more than 10,000 rows or be larger than 4 MB. Turn off Include cost breakdown to reduce the rows.
  • The project scope, documents, or terms could not be read. Try again in a moment.
  • Your company’s terms PDF cannot be read. Ask your admin to upload it again.
Rates and amounts in every download come from the estimate’s stored figures. A linked quantity shows at two decimal places in the estimate schedule, and the downloads use that same rounded quantity. The sell rate stays the same, and the item amount and totals are worked out from the rounded quantity.

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Download history

Download history lists who downloaded the tender’s PDF, Excel, and Word files, and when. Each row shows the revision and the file: for example PDF, as submitted, Word, made from the submitted figures, or Excel, draft, with no prices added for a copy with prices left out. The latest 10 downloads are shown. Share a link makes a private link to the tender for one person. They can open it without signing in. The link shows the tender as it is now, works until the tender’s validity ends (30 days from the tender’s date), and can be turned off at any time. Every view is recorded. Make one link for each person you send the tender to, so you can see who opened it and turn off one link without stopping the others. You can make a link while the tender is in progress or once it is submitted.
  1. Select Share a link.
  2. In Who is it for?, enter who the link is for, for example Jane at Fulton Hogan. This is for your reference.
  3. To share the schedule with quantities only, tick Leave prices out.
  4. Select Make link, then Copy link.
The link is shown only once. Stralos keeps only a coded copy, so it can’t show it again. Stralos lets you know the first time the link is opened. Once a newer revision is submitted, the link no longer shows the tender. It shows who to contact instead. The table lists each link with who it is for, when it was made, when it works until, its revision, whether prices are shown, its status, and its number of views: Select Views to see each time the link was used: when, what was opened (the page, the PDF, or the spreadsheet), the result, a rough browser name, and the network it came from. Select Turn off to stop a link working. A link can’t be turned back on, but you can make a new one. Each link allows 60 page views and 30 file downloads an hour.